How to respond to Putin's threats over Kursk Oblast

Regarding Putin's intransigence with his "I will not negotiate".

First of all, this has happened before. He has said this many times since the beginning of the war and then changed the subject to negotiations. He is a pathological liar and easily renounces his own words.

Secondly, I've said this many times: he or his successors will engage in real negotiations only when:

• They get hit very hard and the situation becomes VERY dangerous for them;
• Or when the potential of Russia's armed forces is so depleted that continuing the war becomes impossible for Russia;
• Or when the regime's internal stability cracks – economically, socially, politically;
• Or when two or three of these "or" scenarios coincide.

The incursion into Kursk Oblast clearly rattled Putin, and his system didn’t handle this unexpected curveball well. The West, far from being intimidated, even seemed to endorse the escalation, which caught him off guard.

Now, he’s scrambling, making almost frantic statements like, "Save us, help us, the Ukrainians are getting out of control." This is a positive development. We and our allies should capitalize on this moment when the so-called red lines have turned brown.

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